Different
by Booksarecoolandnerdsrule
Summary: Four different kids, each thinking they were alone until they found each other. Four Marauders who just had to bully these kids for just being different. Four lives that were ruined by your favourite characters. And this is their story. (Written in the different POVs of Fenir Greybacks's daughter, Luna Lovegood's mum, Ernie Macmillan's dad, and Severus Snape.) *Marauders Era* XD
1. Prologue

**A/n: Hey readers! So school starts for me tomorrow. 8th grade. Big year. So it's probably gonna be** ** _pretty_** **busy for me too. I really wanted to write this story so I'm posting it and I'll try to update whenever I'm able too. I'm really loving the characters and I hope you do too.**

 **The story takes place during the Marauders era. It's about four different kids who each get bullied by a different Marauder. I decided to write it because I think it'll be different to see the dark side of the Marauders.**

 **Enjoy, Booky.**

 **Prologue**

 **Danielle Greyback**

If you're like anyone else, you probably love the Marauders.

I hate them. Every last one of them. Even Remus Lupin.

 _Especially_ Lupin.

Believe me, please, believe me. This is the boy who ruined my life.

All because I was different.

 **Pandora Laura Lockhart**

"You're such an idiot. Who in their right mind would make you a Ravenclaw?"

 _The sorting hat!_ I want to scream at him. When no words come out of my mouth he smirks. "Too dumb to speak, idiot?" He pinches my arm. "Answer me!"

I hate him.

I hate Sirius Black.

 **Duncan Edan Macmillan**

As he leaves me there stunned and injured, I think: _What did I do to deserve this? I try to be kind to everyone._

Why do I have to be different?

Why do I have to be so easy to pick on?

Why did it have to be _them_?

I silently curse the day I met Peter Pettigrew.

 **Severus Snape**

He stole everything from me.

The life I could have had.

My dignity.

 _My Lily..._

I look at my bruised arms and think about her. The door cracks open and I look down, knowing exactly who it was.

"Had enough, Sniveless?" he sneers.

He literally stole everything. I close my eyes. There was no one on this earth that I hated more than James Potter.

 _This is the story on how the Marauders ruined my life._

 **A/n: So there's your prologue! Thanks for reading! I should have the first chapter up a little after I post this. If you like reading about the Marauders, I have another story called** ** _Truth, Lies and Gray Eyes_** **. You should check it out. It's one of my favourite works.**

 **Okay so hoped you enjoyed!**

 **~Booky**


	2. Chapter 1: What Did I Do?

**A/n: Hey readers. Like I said, I here's Chapter 1. Please follow, favourite, and review when you get the chance. It means a lot to me. I hope you enjoy,**

 **~Booky**

 **Chapter 1**

 **Dani**

 _If you're like anyone else, you probably love the Marauders._

 _I hate them. Every last one of them. Even Remus Lupin._

Especially _Lupin._

 _Believe me, please, believe me. This is the boy who ruined my life._

 _All because I was different._

I never thought I'd be going to Hogwarts. I mean, I knew that I was a witch since I was little, but I never dreamed that I'd learn spells and such.

My dad hated anything that involved witches and wizards. I always thought that was the reason he left my mum, that he found that she was a witch and hated her. But after dad got sent to Azkaban, I realized that my dad never even left her. My mum did because my dad was a werewolf. She didn't like me much, always scared that I had some of my father's werewolf genes in my blood.

No matter how many times I insisted that I never transformed by a full moon, she didn't listen. "You still have dirty blood," she had told me. "In ways a werewolf can be worse than a muggle. At least your father was. That's why he belongs in Azkaban."

I was never told why he was taken away for real. My mum would never tell me in the few times she would actually waste her breath to speak to me. When I wrote to Dad he always wrote back but he avoided the question.

Even though I miss Dad, I'm glad that something good came out of it. Mum let me go to Hogwarts, making me promise to not come back for any of the breaks except for summer. I (gladly) promised and here I am on the Hogwarts express.

I'm waiting for the train to start moving. As it finally starts, the door of my practically empty compartment opens. I look to see a boy who looked about my age with dirty blonde hair, chocolate brown eyes and a shy smile. He blushes. "Oh sorry. I thought this was empty." He looks at me hopefully. "You mind if I...?"

I smile and pat the seat across from me. "All yours."

As he drags in a heavy looking trunk, I frown a little. My trunk was only filled halfway. I didn't have much clothes. My dad never knew how to take a girl shopping and my mum never would either. All the clothes I brought were five pairs of jeans, my favourite t-shirt and four hoodies, plus my robes, of course. Right now I'm wearing my only skirt and my lucky hoodie. It was varsity style and it said _Dani_ , my nickname, on the back.

The boy finally pushes the trunk under his seat and sits down. He smiles. "I like your sweater," he chirps.

"Hoodie," I correct, smiling back. "Don't worry people make that mistake all the time."

"What are you holding?" he asks.

I lift my bag. "I made myself lunch."

"Oh. I could've done that but my dad wanted me to buy lunch."

I wince as he says _dad_. I wish I could see mine again.

"What's wrong?" the boy asks, his chocolate brown eyes widening.

I shake my head and fake a smile. "It's nothing." He's nice but he asks a lot of questions, I note.

He shrugs and looks out the window. "Oi, look."

I look out the window. We're riding over a river and it looks quite beautiful. After a minute, we turn back to our seats. "You're a first year right?" I ask. I guessed it before, but I just wanted to make sure.

"Yeah."

"Me too."

"Cool! What house so you want to be in?"

I blush, embarrassed for not knowing what he was talking about. "What do you mean?"

His eyes widen. "You didn't read Hogwarts A History yet?"

I shake my head no. I have trouble reading. All my letters float around the page and no matter how hard I try, they will not make words. But I won't tell this to him.

He goes on any explains the four houses of Hogwarts and other facts that I listen to in awe. This has to be the coolest place on earth.

After a few hours of chatting, I feel my stomach grumble a little. A knock on the door tells me the trolley witch is right on time.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?"

I open my mouth then close it, remembering that I only have a few galleons for the while year. I open my sandwich bag. The boy asks, "Um, what can I order with a galleon and seven sickles?"

That's not a lot of money. Well at least not for a lunch. The witch answers, "I can give you a cream cheese sand-witch and two chocolate frogs if you can throw in one more sickle. Or a chicken sand-witch with one chocolate frog for another sickle as well."

I can hear his stomach growl a little. It's clear that the latter is more filling. "The first one please."

Why would he choose that one? He looks really hungry. He pulls out one more sickle from the pouch he's been holding and hands it to her with the rest of the money. If he had more money why did he buy so little?

The witch leaves and I start to eat my sandwich while looking out the window. By the looks of the sky it was already the afternoon. I finally decided to pull out a book and try to read it. I just discovered yesterday that if I read the first few letters and the last few letters of the word, I can just guess the letters in between and have a word. Here's what I made out: _Grindylows are_ _mythical_ _magical creators_... Wait, not creators that doesn't make sense. Um, _creatures_ , probably. I close the book. Not even a full minute and it's already giving me a headache.

"You squint while you read," the boy says. I look up. "Did you ever think about getting reading glasses?"

"They don't do much," I reply simply. "I actually have a pair in my trunk but I don't really need it."

The boy shrugs. Then he smiles. "Hey, do you wanna chocolate frog?"

I shake my head. "You payed for it. I already finished my lunch anyways. I'm full."

He puts the frog in my hand. "I insist."

I smile shyly. "Thank you."

I open the wrapping. I bite into the frog and pull out the card. I quickly recognize the picture as Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts. I hand the card to the boy. "Can you read it for me?" I ask, not wanting another headache. "You can keep it if you'd like. I don't need it."

He smiles and reads the card's facts to me. When he finishes he looks at me. "By the way, what's your name?"

We both burst into laughter because we just spent half the train ride talking without even knowing each other's name. "I'm Remus," he tells me. "Remus Lupin."

"I'm Danielle Greyback, but you can call me 'Dani' or 'Elle'."

As it turns out he doesn't call me either. He frowns. "Greyback?" he repeats.

I nod. "I'm a half blood," I blurt out. God, Dani. He doesn't need to know your blood type.

"I should have known that it was too good to be true," he mumbles. He storms out of the compartment.

 _What did I do?_ I wonder.

I lock the door to change into my robes. After I unlock it, I sit back down in silence. An hour later, Remus comes back. "Get out. I need to change into my robes." He pushes me out the door and locks me out. I lean against the door. He better not think he could order me around because I had a lower blood type than him. That is, if he even is pure blood.

I hear the door unlock and I walk in. He has his legs legs up on my seat. He glares at me. I frown and move one seat over. For the rest of the train ride he glares at me. I don't really look at him. All I could think is, _What did I do?_

 **A/n: Soooo? What did you think? Remus wasn't as nice as you thought he was, huh. I'll hopefully have the next chapter up soon.**

 **Happy Sunday,**

 **~Booky**


	3. Chapter 2: Worthless

**A/n: Hey readers! First day wasn't so bad... Let's just say my teacher was very... enthusiastic in her teaching. By the way, I'm trying to update often, but I can't make any promises when I will. Also are my chapters too short? I'll try to make them longer if you think they are.**

 **Thank you to everyone who gave this story a favourite, follow, and/or a story alert. It means a lot to me. Please review, I do review responses at the beginning of every chapter.**

 **I really hope you guys enjoy. Here's Chapter 2!**

 **~Booky**

 **Chapter 2**

 **Pandora**

 _"You're such an idiot. Who in their right mind would make you a Ravenclaw?"_

The sorting hat! _I want to scream at him. When no words come out of my mouth he smirks. "Too dumb to speak, idiot?" He pinches my arm. "Answer me!"_

 _I hate him._

 _I hate Sirius Black._

"Um, I'm Pando-" I start but the good-looking boy with the long brown hair cuts me off.

"My name is Sirius Black. Wait, you said your name was _Panda_?"

"No it's-"

He bursts into laughter. "That has to be the stupidest name I've ever heard."

"But it's not-"

He doesn't listen. So I have to do this...

"THAT'S NOT MY NAME, YOU PRAT!" I scream at him.

He glares at me. It's scary in a way. Then he grabs my arm and squeezes it very hard. " _NEVER_ YELL AT ME AGAIN!" he yells.

I feel tears forming in my eyes. _He's hurting me._ I nod quickly with a tear streaming down my cheek.

He rolls his eyes. "Oh come on. How old are you? Three? You're being such a baby." He smirks. "Baby Panda." He finally lets go of my arm, leaving a pink patch of skin from where he squeezed me. "Maybe you should just cry your way home to your little _panda_ mummy."

As he laughs, I feel myself shrinking smaller and smaller. I want to speak up but every word I want to scream gets swallowed back by my sobs.

Suddenly, I feel myself getting picked up. _Put me down!_ I want to scream. Still no words can come out of my mouth. Sirius is holding me like a baby. I look into his eyes. He looks back into mine with pure hatred. He swings me left and right, then throws me out of the compartment and I crash into a wall. "Thanks for the compartment, Baby Panda!" He slams the door.

I stand up in all of my pain and run to the nearest bathroom. I throw up my breakfast and just sit there for a minute or two because it was to painful to stand up again. I washed off my face and remembered that my trunk was still in my old compartment. I couldn't even change into my robes without Sirius tormenting me again.

I burst into more tears. After five minutes, I hear knocking on the door. "Hey, are you doin' alright in there?" I didn't recognize his voice. He was Scottish, but I didn't really know anyone from Scotland. "It's okay, the hallways empty. You can come out."

"Who are you?" I finally manage to say.

"I'm Duncan Macmillan. Ya dinny know me, most probably."

I blink away a few years and smile a little. "What?"

"You... you probably don't know me."

With my cardigan sleeve, I wipe off my wet face. I stand up and open the door. It's a boy with blonde hair and green eyes. He's on the skinny side and a little short. "Why are you helping me?" I ask him.

Duncan smiles sadly. "I heard everythin' in your compartment. That bloke was being such a jerk."

I sigh. "So you don't think I'm a baby panda?"

He laughs. No, I think that you are a wonderful witch just by looking at you. And besides, baby pandas are cute."

I smile. "Thanks Duncan." Then I remember my trunk. "My trunk is still in my- _his_ compartment. I don't know how I'll be able to get it back."

"No sweat. I'll get it for you."

We walk back to my old compartment. Duncan steps in and comes out a minute later, dragging my trunk behind him. Through the open door, I saw that there were more people in the compartment now. Sirius, a boy with messy black hair and glasses, a girl with long red hair, and another boy with long greasy hair. Sirius smirks when he sees me. "Everyone, say hello to Baby Panda."

The boy with the glasses starts to laugh. Then Sirius joins in. The other boy looks away and keeps quiet. The girl glares at them. I try to hide my face with my hair but I still feel their laughter tormenting me.

"Oi, hauld yer weesht, Black," Duncan groaned.

"English please?" Glasses asked.

Duncan glared at them. "Potter. Black. Shut. Your. Freaking. Traps." He slammed the door and dragged my trunk behind him. "Lets go to me-uh, _my_ compartment, then."

 **Duncan**

 _As he leaves me there stunned and injured, I think:_ What did I do to deserve this? I try to be kind to everyone.

 _Why do I have to be different?_

 _Why do I have to be so easy to pick on?_

 _Why did it have to be_ them _?_

 _I silently curse the day I met Peter Pettigrew._

As I lead the girl to my compartment, I ask her what her real name is.

"Pandora Laura Lockhart," she tells me. "No one calls my Laura except for my grandum though."

I smile. I like her name. It's light blue with a few touches of sunflower yellow and shiny red. Only I don't tell her that. It's my darkest secret. Only my parents know about it. When I read, my letters have colors. When I listen to music, I hear colors. When I experience emotions, I feel colors. Let's just say my life is very colorful. Me mum's a doctor at St. Mungos and she told me that whatever I had was not a magical illness or even an illness at all. She said that what I had was probably something that even muggles could get. I would'ne ken- I mean, I wouldn't know (Sorry, I'm still trying to get used to the way these Britts speak. It was so much easier when I was back at home). My family has pureblood that goes all the way back nine generations.

Not that we hate muggle-borns or anything. Friendships are okay, just not relationships. My parents don't want problems with our bloodlines. The Macmillans are actually one of the families in the Sacred Twenty-Eight. My parents would like to keep it that way.

When we finally get to my compartment, I open my door realizing that another bloke came in and sat down there while I was gone. "Um, hello. This is my compartment. Sorry."

The bloke turns and faces me. He has a rather rat-like figure. Short (yet maybe a little taller than me), chubby, and not the best of teeth. He rolls his eyes. "The t-train is f-full, wise guy."

I smirk. It's hard to find him intimidating with that stutter. "I was here first. I don't care if you stay or not, but sure I am."

He glares at me but doesn't say anything. I pull in Pandora's trunk and put it under the seat next to mine. We sit down next to each other and exchange looks. I'm already not liking this bloke. Pandora doesn't seem to be either.

Rat-boy looks at Pandora. "Y-you got a n-name, lovely?"

She turns to me, her bright blue eyes full of fear. Probably because she didn't want to be called _Baby Panda_ again. I hold her hand. "Her name's Laura," I tell him. It's technically not a lie.

He glares at me. "Sh-sh-she can speak for herself, Scrawny."

"Not like she wants to talk to you," I mutter under my breath.

"What was that?" he growls.

I roll my eyes. "Nothing, nothing."

"That's r-right, Scrawny. That's because every w-word that c-comes out of that stupid mouth of yours is _worthless_. You are _worthless_. Don't try making yourself think you're any b-better than that."

Shocked, I stay seated. What the heck? Why's he being so rude? Then the faded red rushes through me. I can't help it. I stand up and punch his face. Not that it could have hurt too much anyways. I'm not that strong.

He reaches for his cheek and his face turns red in anger. He stands up and suddenly my burst of courage fades away. He punches me in the eye and I fall back to my seat, feeling the rusty red pain spread through the rest of my body. Pandora's blonde hair brushes against my arms. "Duncan!" she cries. I see grass-green blobs as she says my name.

"No sweat, Dora. I'm fine." I sit up to prove my point but the pain spreads too quickly. I wince and gasp for a breath. Everything was spinning and glowing assorted colors. Then it all slows down and fades away. Everything turns black except for the green blobs still shooting out of Pandora's mouth. _My name_. I cling to them. I hold on to the colors. But then she stops and I slowly feel myself

 **A/n: Sorry for leaving you hanging. Or sinking. Yeah... So I'll try to update soon but school's just starting. Good luck in your schools, guys!**

 **Also, I'm trying to decide where to continue. Do you guys want to see Severus's point of view, or for me to continue in Duncan's so you could see what'll happen. Or do you want me to start off in Duncan's and switch off to Severus? Or the opposite? Please review so I'll know what you guys want.**

 **Happy Tuesday,**

 **~Booky**


	4. Chapter 3: Spotless

**A/n: Ok, guys I have amazing news. I'm actually soo happy** **right now! So if any of you guys read _Truth, Lies and Gray Eyes_ , you'd know that I couldn't figure out how to do a line break. When I did a line break in TLAGE, my line breaks looked like this:**

 **(LINEBREAKLINEBREAKLINEBREAK)**

 **I'm actually realizing how pathetic that must've looked. Yeah...**

 **Okay, other then that... GUYS I'M BACK!**

 **So sorry I couldn't update very often. Eighth grade... lotta stuff going on. Wish me luck on everything. Hope you guys are doing well too. Sorry again.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest: Thank you! I'm actually like obsessed with Scottish accents. They're so cool! I'm actually do happy you asked about the colours. It's something called Synesthesia (SIN-ES-THEE-JA), and it's actually quite fascinating. I actually have it. I see music in color, I feel emotions with color, I see certain words in color, and sometimes I see peoples moods in a color. You can't exactly get it... Everyone is technically born with it and as you get older it either stays with you or leaves you. For more information, use my favourite source: GOOGLE!**

 **ink and imagination: Ahh I've missed you...! Thank you for all of the compliments! Yeah so in the end I did it from Duncan to Severus. Hope you don't mind.**

 **That's it for reviews. Guys, please review! It means a lot to me. I want to hear your feedback on what you like or dislike (as long as it's written calmly and not rudely). Also I need ideas sometimes!**

 **Okay forget it because you're probably skipping my authors note anyways because what's coming up next is probably way more exciting then what I'm saying now. Heads up: this chapter is longer than usual. Here comes chapter 3!**

 **Chapter 3**

 **Duncan**

Sharp, rusty red cuts my mind in an overwhelming dizziness. The color green still lingers in my mind from before I passed out.

 _Passed out._

As the words hit me all of my memories rush back, making me feel more sick. I want to open my eyes and find out where I am but my right eye feels heavy. I try to think but every thought brings a headache.

I'm nauseous, injured, and confused. I know what happened, but what happened after? Is someone older here? A prefect or at least someone who can help me?

In all of my pain, I start to open my left eye, immediately shutting it. Too bright. Too painful.

"Duncan, are you awake?" that girl asks. Pandora. The girl with the colourful and pretty name.

I wince. My response to her is a groan. I try opening my eye again this time keeping it open. "How bad is it?" I rasp, gasping in a breath from the brightness.

Pandora bites her lip. "Pretty bad."

I curse under my breath. That rat-face was such a jerk. _Scrawny_ , he'd called me. _Worthless_. I close my eyes again. "He was'ne lyin' y'know. I- I'm what he said. I'm worthless."

"Oh, Duncan, how hard did he hit you're head? You're not believing that toad, are you? You are not worthless."

"You're not a baby panda then," I reply, my lips starting to form the traces of a smile. "Where are we? Also, did ya call for help?"

"We're outside that monster's compartment. I wanted to get my brother because he's a prefect for Ravenclaw, but I didn't want to leave you."

I lift my hand to rub my forehead. "How did you get me out?"

"Just because I'm a girl does not mean that I'm a weakling."

"I never called you weak. To be honest, I probably have less muscle than you do."

She laughs. "You took my trunk from one jerk's compartment to another's."

"I dragged your trunk from one jerk's compartment to me own until another jerk hijacked mine." I open my eye again to see Pandora shaking her head, smiling. I can't help grinning myself. I close my eye again.

After a moment I hear her stand up. "I should get Roy," she announces. I hear her footsteps, then a door opening, then the sound of to people crashing into each other and groaning. I open my eye to see that Pandora crashed into a boy leaving his compartment.

"Terribly sorry," he mumbles. He looks at Pandora. "Are you-?"

"I'm fine," she states, standing up. "Sorry." She starts to walk away again.

The boy looks around confused as to what had happened. Finally, he lays his eyes on me and his face falls. "Did she do that to you?" he asks, shocked.

"Did she do what?" I ask.

"You know. Your... eye."

I chuckle. "'Course not. She's me friend. The bloke who you're talkin' about is rat-face in there." I point to the compartment door next to me.

"Goodness! Well, let me help you." He walks closer to me and pulls out his wand. " _Dolor auferato!_ " he chants.

The pain slowly eases. A cold rush of relief fills my blood. "Thanks," I tell him.

"The swelling will have to go away on its own but your pain should be gone."

I nod. A strand of hair falls over my eyes and I'm about to push it back up, but decide to leave it. Maybe if enough hair covers it, it won't look so horrible. "And you are?" I ask, pulling more strands over my eye.

"I'm Remus."

"Duncan."

I open the face of my watch. I installed a mirror in it once when I was bored. I move my hair over to look at my bruised eye. I curse under my breath again. What a great arrival this would be. I let my hair cover it again. I can still see my eye but it's covered a bit and it's not as noticeable. "Someone has got to teach that jerk how to be less evil," I mutter.

"I'll do it."

I look up. Remus shrugs. "I'll tell him to apologise."

I shake my head. "Boy, you really don't want to do that."

"But no one should get away with doing that!" he argues.

"He does'ne like me. He will'ne apologise no matter what you say, Remus. Din'ne waste your breath."

Remus blinks. "Didn't catch that."

"It's impossible. He will not apologise, that's that."

He pauses, then says, "Nothing's impossible." He reaches for the compartment door.

I roll my eyes. Well at least one of them.

I wait. Five minutes pass and Remus isn't out of the compartment and Pandora isn't back.

Ten minutes. Nothing. I lean back against the wall. My watch read 6:42. We're supposed to get to Hogsmead at 7:30. I need to change into my robes soon.

Fifteen minutes. I finally see Pandora walking down the hallway, alone. "Some people aren't the slightest bit helpful," she grumbles.

I laugh. "It's fine. Some lad came and eased it up a bit."

"It still looks horrible."

"What do you mean, I don't look as good-looking with me eye all banged up?"

She smirks. "You sound like that boy from my first compartment."

"Black? Oh you better take that back, Pandora Laura Lockhart."

"I'm only joking, Duncan Macmillan."

"Duncan _Eden_ Macmillan, if we're using middle names." My stomach growls and I look down. I haven't eaten much today. Breakfast was rushed and I didn't have time to eat a lot. I missed the trolley witch when I blacked out so I haven't eaten lunch. I reach into my pocket, remembering the toffee I had.

As I unwrap it, a compartment door opens and I accidentally lose my grip. There goes my lunch.

Remus walks out with that prat. "Peter," Remus says flatly.

"I'm sorry," Rat-Face says with little expression.

I exchange looks with Pandora. "Um..." Remus nods his head to Rat-Face. "Forgiven," I spit out, with the same tone as Rat-Face.

Remus smiles and walks back to his compartment. Rat-Face (or Peter, apparently) lets us back in the compartment. Pandora grabs her robes and exits. I'm about to do the same until Peter stops me. "I did it for Remus. I still d-don't like you, Scrawny."

I shake my head. Some things are impossible.

* * *

 **Severus**

 _He stole everything from me._

 _The life I could have had._

 _My dignity._

My Lily...

 _I look at my bruised arms and think about her. The door cracks open and I look down, knowing exactly who it was._

 _"Had enough, Sniveless?" he sneers._

 _He literally stole everything. I close my eyes. There was no one on this earth that I hated more than James Potter._

* * *

"Severus, I don't care what time your nonsense train leaves, I told you that you needed to clean the barn," my dad announces. "No dust and no cobwebs. Don't even think about coming back here before that place is _spotless_. You may want to hurry."

 _He can't be serious_ , I think. I look at Mum for her to say something. She shakes her head sadly. She gave up hope in him already.

As I head out to the barn, I feel like crying. I'll miss the train and ruin everything. I could not spend another year with that horrid man who calls himself my father.

My father didn't know that my mum was a witch when they got married. He only found once I was born. Mum couldn't exactly hide that I was a wizard. They've been fighting ever since. Dad hates all magic and pretty much everything else. He hates me, he hates my mum and he hates that I'm going to "****ing magic school," as he likes to call it. Probably because he won't have anyone to take his anger out on except for my mum. I pick up a bucket and start to clean. I better pray nothing happens to Mum this year.

My stomach grumbles. I've tried to get a drink whenever my father wasn't looking but I wasn't as lucky with food. I haven't had more than one slice of bread in the past two days and when my father caught me eating it he had a row about it with my mother on how I was eating all of the food. We had plenty of food left in our cabinet. I took one piece of stale bread and he starved me for two days.

I've been in the barn for a few minutes already and it looks exactly the same. No dust and no cobwebs. Those were literally the only things that were in the barn. It would take hours to clean. Hours that should have been me sitting with Lily Evans on the train.

I glare at the barn in hatred. I _hate_ my father. I _hate_ that my mother doesn't just leave him. Slowly, the barn magically cleans itself. Shocked, I check everything. No dust. No cobwebs. Nothing. I had moments like these since I was young and I thought that they were over by now. Nevertheless, I was completely grateful. I run back to house and run into the kitchen. My mother's pacing but she stops when she sees me. She nervously bites her lip. I walk passed her and turn to my father who was busy smoking a cigarette. He rolls his eyes and pulls the cigarette away from his mouth breathing the disgusting smoke into my face as he says, "I thought I made myself clear, boy. Don't come back until that place is spotless."

"It is," I explain, trying to gasp in fresh air but failing.

He frowns. "'It is, Sir.' We'll see about that." He marches towards the backdoor then pauses. "If you're lying to me, boy, you better forget about that blasted train. Or another meal."

He swings open the door and marches out. I quickly turn my attention to Mum. "We need to go."

"I wish but you know what'll happen if we don't wait for your father."

"So take me to the train and don't come back. There has to be some wizard family that'll take you in."

She sighs. "Sevvy, I don't think there is. My family and friends disgraced me for marrying a muggle. I don't really know anyone else outside of that group."

"Mum, your a witch. Someone will take you in. Anything's better than this." I roll up one of her sleeves and pull my lips together in a tight line. Bruises, scratches, scars. "He hurts you," I whisper. I roll up my own sleeve. Burns from when he holds his cigarette against my skin, bruises, and even some fresh scratches from this morning, some still bleeding.

She gasps. "And he hurts me," I continue. "Anything, mum. Really."

"Boy, I'm going to kill you!" my father screeches from the barn.

"Mum, now."

She wearily pulls out her last unbroken wand. I run to get my trunk from the bottom of the stairs where Dad caught me trying to leave before he did anything. Mum follows me. We hear the door slam open. As he runs into the next room my mum holds my hand and recites the spell. Dizziness takes over my body as I grab tightly onto my trunk. _Apparition_.

When the spell is over, I want to fall to the floor in nausea but I can't waste anymore time or I'll miss the train. Speak of the devil, I can't even find it. I stand on my tippy-toes trying to find the Hogwarts Express or at least Platform 9¾. Nothing. I turn to Mum in hope.

She smiles and shakes her head. Then she walks straight to pole in between Platforms nine and ten. She disappears. Gone. Just like that. I stare at the pole for a few seconds. Finally she sticks her head through. "Well, hurry up," she says with a huge grin one her face. "Can't have you missing the train."

I smile and grab my trunk again. I walk through the pole and take everything in. Parents hugging their children lovingly. Owls squawking. Children yelling.

Then there's me. The boy who was barely cared for in a room full of well groomed families. I turn to Mum. "There has to be at least one family in here that could take you in from this room, right?"

"Don't worry about me, Severus. It's your first day." She grins a little. "You better hope they'll put you in Slytherin."

I smile at that. If course my mum would want me in the best house in Hogwarts. She was a Slytherin herself. I wonder how many friends I'll get to make. Then I think, I hope Lily will end up in the same house as me.

Then I see her. Her shoulder-length, silky, red hair. Those huge, deepset, emerald eyes. And that wide, white smile when she noticed me. She will never be a Slytherin, I rethink, smiling sadly. She's too nice. Too intelligent. She'll probably end up being in Ravenclaw.

She runs over. "Severus!" she exclaims. She wraps her arms around me in a tight hug and whispers in my ear, "I was so scared that maybe you wouldn't make it."

I shake my head. I could never miss this. We look into each other's eyes. She smiles really big. "I just can't believe it, Sev!"

"Lily, where have you- oh, there you are." Mr. and Mrs. Evans walk over to us. Mr. Evans gives me a long look. "You'll look after my little girl, yes, Mr. Snape?"

I nod quickly, grinning. "Yes, sir."

He laughs. "Lily, at least you'll be in good dirty- I mean _sturdy_ hands."

I blush and hide my hands behind my back. They definitely _were_ dirty.

Lily notices and grabs my hand. "Let's go! I want to get good seats!"

I smile again and grab my trunk. I start to follow Lily but I stop mid-step and turn around. I give my mum a tight hug. "Good luck," she tells me. I want to tell her the same words.

I close my eyes. "Mum, promise me you'll stay safe while I'm gone."

She rubs my face and I open my eyes. "Safety is a shield only you could create for yourself. You need to make sure to shield yourself from the wrong sort and then you'll be protected. My safety is my concern alone." She reaches for my trunk and gives me the handle. "Don't worry about me." She started to walk away and I blinked. _How could I not worry?_

Lily turns around. "You coming, Sev?"

I nod. We board the train and find an empty compartment. We sat there for a while and talked. Then the loud whistle blew and we heard shuffling outside of our compartment. A group of tall older kids walk in. They all must be at least fifteen years old. They stare at us and we stared back. We technically got here first...

"Um, this is the Prefect's compartment,"a Gryffindor speaks up. "For prefects only."

My face changes to red, embarrassed. "We're so sorry! We didn't realize!"

"No reason to worry," one of the Hufflepuff prefects say. At the same time, a Slytherin boy with shoulder length platinum-blonde hair muttered, "As if they didn't notice that this compartment is three times the size as the others, " under his breath but I caught it.

Lily blushed. "We'll just get our-"

A Ravenclaw prefect swished and flicked her wand and mumbled a spell. Mine and Lily's trunks flew up and out of the compartment. "No need."

Lily's eyes widen at the sight of the spell. "Uh, thank you," she stammers.

The girl nods back. Lily and I exit the compartment. I pick up my trunk which isn't quite heavy because I don't really have much to bring. Once the door closes, Lily blurts out, "That was so embarrassing!"

"No kidding."

Lily starts dragging her trunk as she walks to follow me. "What's a Prefect anyways?" she asks.

"Well, they're like spies really. They watch their house from a student perspective and they notify the teachers if anything goes wrong. They're also allowed to give detentions or confiscate things."

"Are they like Mr. Filch?"

I laugh. "Most definitely not. Anyways you shouldn't worry about Prefects. They're just prats. Best you keep your distance from them, but they're not too bad."

I peek through a compartment window. Looks empty enough. Only two boys. I open the door and Lily follows me in. They both snicker. The boy with glasses looks at me and bites his lip, as if trying to hold back his laughter from what I was wearing. _Yeah, I don't have the best clothes. Deal with it._

Lily glares at them and we move to the other end of the compartment. Something gives me a feeling that this train ride won't end well.

 **A/n: I'll try to update when I can. Happy Sunday! :)**


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